Serum - C185 (Patreon)

“Your majesty. All is ready.”

“Yes. The first step can now be taken. While not quite on schedule, it’s of no consequence.”

Pandora smiled, bringing up a large bowl of clear liquid. 

“I’ve been working on this masterpiece for a while now. So, let’s see just how amazing my work is.”

With those words she dumped the bowl into the massive reservoir of water in front of her. It was a mere gallon, and it disseminated seamlessly into the large lake beyond. It seemed like a drop in an ocean, but the Captain beside her had no doubts in his mind. The only thing he felt was pity. 

They had been trained to serve the High Royalty, raised from birth for that specific purpose. They were soul-bound. Their lives and deaths were in the hands of they who held their Pacts. Pandora held his, as well as those of the entire Shadow Troop. She could kill them in the most horrible way on a whim. 

And so he had learned to be heartless. He knew nothing but serving his master. He was her tool, ever-loyal, not the slightest thought otherwise. He would genocide entire cities if she ordered it, and he would do so unflinchingly. 

But when she went and did things like this… it made him feel slight pangs of empathy. He, beyond most, understood how merciless this girl could be. It was one of the reasons why he was so shocked that she could have a relationship with someone like she did Dirk. 

He wished that boy was here. Maybe then she wouldn’t be so heartless. Everything was so peaceful when he was on board, and when she was running off with him to do things, leaving them alone…

Oh how good they had it. How he longed for those days again.

“...Your majesty, are you sure you don’t want me to try and find Sir Strider?”

“That’s the fifth time in the past two weeks you’ve asked that.”

“I’m simply worried. He’s your close friend. I know how… displeased you would be if something were to happen to him.”

“Captain, do you know why I’ve chosen to bring Dirk along with everything I do despite never having done so with anyone before?”

“...No, I do not.”

The Captain shook his head, Pandora smiling. 

“It’s because he can’t die.”

“...Can’t?”

“Precisely. Dirk is a killing machine, a living weapon, the greatest combat genius this world has ever seen. I know that even without me here, he’d thrive just fine. Right now he’s probably collecting information, making connections, advancing his power, and paving a road for me to walk down at such time that he finally decides to stop blue-balling me and give me a call. And he can do all that because he’s too capable not to. He possesses an opposing skillset to mine. Whereas I take advantage of valuable people, he’s so valuable that people go to him. They give him what he needs to do the things that only he can do, and you know how people treat those of value to them. This is all to say that Dirk is the last person you should be worried about.”

“...I understand.”

The Captain bowed a bit as Pandora whisked the bowl away. Still, he couldn’t help an internal sigh. 

It seemed like he wouldn’t be getting Dirk back. Pandora would remain unpacified for a time. 

It had been a while since she got blood. Her displeasure had subsided after the initial incident, but it would surely return in full force. He wasn’t looking forward to dealing with that. 

He hoped her great conquest over this city would be enough to stave her for a while. Perhaps that would give Dirk a reason to return. 

After Pandora was satisfied, they walked away from the reservoir. All plans were in place. They just had to wait for this Branch city to hit its lowest point. Then, they’d strike. 

The Captain glanced to the towering tree a couple miles away. The city held several hundred thousand people, and from where he stood, he couldn’t imagine anything less than an 80% mortality rate at minimum. Pandora would be massacring these elves, and none would be spared. 

If not for the fact that the elves were doing the same to them, he’d feel far more empathy. Still, he was glad that he was on Pandora’s side of the battle. He couldn’t imagine having her as an enemy. He’d sooner take his own life than go against her, with or without the Pact. 

He sighed once more, focusing on his next objectives. 

……

…

Although it seemed impossible, Dirk had managed to push the Heart Core up to the Tier 8 standard just before cracking it open and breaking it out of its shell. 

What changes it had undergone in that short window of time, he wasn’t sure. Either way, the Heart Core was an incredibly valuable thing to have, both by virtue of the strength of its material as well as the knowledge contained within. 

Not only that, but the phenomenon that occurred while attempting to dislodge the Core from its shell was something Dirk learned a lot about. 

The oscillation that occurred with the rapid switching of gravity and earth mana had created some sort of resonating frequency that allowed Dirk to generate different materials on a whim. Although he could manipulate mana, it was his Anima Oscillation that he sourced the knowledge of oscillation from. 

Before Mana Manipulation, Dirk had Mana Resonance. He had utilized this to strengthen materials and to develop techniques like stealth which allowed him to reduce his mana signature. 

Now though, he was learning that resonance and oscillation weren’t necessarily so different. 

He could use oscillation to acquire certain frequencies with ease, and then resonance to utilzie that frequency for his purpose. After all, he didn’t just have to create materials. 

He could change materials, mess with their structure and integrity, even destroy them. The possibilities were endless, especially when it came to combat. Anima Oscillation was really good at wreaking havoc on everything it came into contact with. It was what gave Eleanor such a hard time, because simply defending against Dirk’s anima with her own could cause hers to explode with concussive force. 

On the other hand, Mana Resonance would enhance objects, similar to enchanting. So what would happen if Dirk oscillated mana instead of anima? Wouldn’t he be able to ‘destroy’ mana? He could break down enchantments with ease, collapse spells with a fraction of the energy, or sow sheer destruction on the world around him. He couldn’t imagine what it was capable of if utilized alongside his fire mana. 

And that was just one newfound technique. This Mana Oscillation and Resonance, empowered by his Mana Manipulation, could be combined with what he learned from the Heart Core. 

The Heart Core had two main functions: Filter and accumulate mana. Because it was a Geode Heart Core, it did this utilizing gravity and metal. It used what was basically anti-gravity to push earth mana away from it and through the filter that was the Cubical metal Shell surrounding the Core. This shell was the second piece of the puzzle that accumulated and helped filter the mana that was forced through it. Over time, tiny bits of extremely dense and powerful earth mana would reach the standard the Core was looking for and then fall through the anti-gravity, sinking to the Heart Core and forming that extremely strong shell around the crystal with all the formations inside. 

Disregarding what Dirk learned while creating a catastrophic breakdown using oscillation, this filter and accumulation was extremely valuable solely because it could change the way he advanced his power. One big issue with advancing, besides learning the formations associated with it, was accumulating power. It took powerful mana crystals to do so. They would fuel the dense power needed in order to spur the changes. 

Dirk’s next steps would involve crystalizing his Mana Heart, which meant he’d have to empower it with obscenely dense mana. While Pandora had more than enough in the way of mana crystals, it was still a massive expense that she had to dip into as well, given that she was solely a mage. 

But with this new knowledge, he’d be able to developed formations that could filter and accumulate mana for him. Even if he couldn’t create his own mana crystals, he would be able to create environments for training. 

Even more than that though, this could be applied to combat. Or more precisely, defense. 

What did it mean to filter and accumulate? That cube around the Core hadn’t just been an extremely powerful shell. It was also a barrier against inferior mana. A filter, in essence, was a barrier that resisted anything that it didn’t want passing through it, whether it was literal or figurative. 

So if Dirk could apply such filters and accumulated mana to his armors, he’d gain absolute mana resistance unlike anything he’d ever known. 

The only downside to absolute mana resistance was that it resisted all mana. Knights frequently wore these armors in order to fight mages, because they didn’t have to worry about casting spells and having their own armor get in the way. On the other hand, mages couldn’t wear such armors because it would prevent them from moving mana beyond their body. That’s why mages wore armors that did the opposite, armors that conducted mana, not unlike Dirk’s scale armor that allowed him to use his lightning techniques with ease. 

However, there was one thing that Dirk could utilize in order to both gain absolute mana resistance and completely bypass the issues. 

He’s the one that could develop the filter to his own standards. He could utilize his ability to oscillate and resonate mana to make it so that only certain frequencies could pass through. Not only that, but he could make it so that only a very specific level of mana with specific potencies and densities could bypass the filter utilizing the accumulation the filter would provide. Anything not at his specific level, whether it was more or less powerful, would meet resistance. 

By combining just about everything he knew about manipulating mana, he could create the ultimate mana armor. It wouldn’t inhibit him in the slightest, and yet it would be resistant to all forms of magic that came from others. 

If he used the materials from the Heart Core in its construction… it would be indestructible. His Scale armor was tough, but it was more so conducive to using lightning magic. It made him fast, and not nearly as durable as this new armor could make him. 

Combat, defense, and cultivation. This single Heart Core had taught him things that would forever change every aspect of his magical life. And what made it so amazing was the fact that there was little else in the way of developed magic that could compare to the sheer scale and simplicity of this natural formation. Any other spell that tried to do the same thing would be far beyond him, so complex that it could only be learned and wielded by the most powerful mages. 

But he was able to learn just about everything from the Heart Core in a day, mostly thanks to his Mana Body and Manipulation. Still, it was simple, efficient, scalable, and powerful. 

True genius wasn’t necessarily being able to make complicated things. It was also about making complicated things simple. At some point, it formed a loop. 

Something simple becomes something complex, and then it rises so far into complexity that it transforms and becomes simple once more, yet remains just as if not more effective. 

This Heart Core was at the furthest point in that loop, placing its value so high up that he started to get worried about carrying it around. Those who understood the value of a Heart Core would also be the ones with the power to take it. On the other hand, he didn’t yet have that power. This was something beyond his pay grade.

He’d have to trust Yumia for now, at least until he could get this back to Pandora and perhaps pass it off to Grandpa Qoi. 

Until then, he decided that making sure he at least extracted all its value would suffice. Spyte had perfect copies of every formation he saw and studied within the Heart Core and on the shell around it. Even if he lost the Core itself, he’d have the knowledge. It would only be unfortunate that he couldn’t make something with it. 

Though, he did have the metal, both from the cubic shell and from the surface of the Core. The metal of the shell sat around the 7 standard, while the stuff around the Core had been Tier 8 easily. The only reason he could cut into the cubic shell was because it was inert, not exactly built for resisting anima, Aura, or his Living Flame. Even then it had taken days to get through it, and even longer to enchant it. 

Suddenly, he wondered how amazing it could get if Exos got his hands on it. If he could collaborate with that dwarf on his armor, he couldn’t imagine how amazing it could become. 

He wasn’t in a rush though. He had other things to do and plenty of time to do it. They wouldn’t be leaving the Otherworld anytime soon so there was no reason to hasten things and risk making an inferior product. 

Dirk found a chair and sat down. The day had been tiring. He hadn’t even gotten here that long ago. He had just been so eager to analyze the Heart Core that he put off sleep. 

It had been some hours since he started, morning already peeking over the horizon. He wondered what was going on at that camp…

“Jeez! What a pain. One downside from getting stronger are the tedious battles. Everything used to be so easy when I was young and talented, and better than everybody…”

Yumia entered through a portal, rambling on about the difficult of her fight. She looked perfectly fine, so Dirk didn’t take her too seriously, though he could understand the tedious part. 

She dropped into the main chair, taking out a bottle of blood red wine and gulping down a swig. Then, her face bloomed with a pervy smile. 

“Hehe, that’s another perky shot for the books. So long as I live he will never live this down. Hey, wanna see something funny?”

Yumia suddenly took out an Orb, projecting a particularly high definition picture of her elven enemy’s ass. Although he couldn’t use his eyes, Dirk felt the urge to shut them. It was also unfortunate that turning away didn’t affect his mana vision. 

“Yeah, no thanks. You can keep that in your book.”

“Heh, I already spread this picture across a few branch cities. That’ll teach him not to mess with me again.”

Yumia twirled her bottle of wine with that goofy grin, chuckling evilly for a few seconds before suddenly laying eyes on the Heart Core. 

“Oh yeah, how’s the study?”

“I finished.”

“That’s good. Learn anything?”

“A lot, actually. It has good stuff.”

“Obviously. It’s a Tier 8 Heart Core. A Geode one, no less. Those things are as rare as they are difficult to extract. Im surprised you didn’t die trying.”

“I almost did actually.”  

Dirk scratched his head while remembering getting his arm taken off. He had thought he’d become a bit more durable in recent years, but before that kind of catastrophic power, he may as well still be mere flesh and blood. 

If that piece of shrapnel had been mere inches over from where it hit, there’d be a good chance he would have died in that mine. He had gotten lucky. 

Thankfully he wouldn’t be doing that again anytime soon, and if he did, then he prepare more. 

Yumia smiled one more time before suddenly yawning. That’s when Dirk asked. 

“Is there a place I can stay? Unless you want me to call Pandora-”

“Whoah now! We have something good going on right here. Let’s not ruin it.”

“...Right.”

“As for where you can stay…”

She looked around the room, finding a corner before pointing her finger, a large luxuriant bed popping into existence right in front of a bookshelf.

“Right there is good.”

“You want me to sleep in the same room with you?”

Dirk asked while looking over, finding another massive bed with some papers on it. This wasn’t just a study, but a small home. It was certainly large enough, but Dirk didn’t know how to feel about staying in the same place as Yumia. 

She grinned and crossed one leg over the other, leaning forward. 

“What, getting funny thoughts?”

“No, I have Pandora for those.”

“Hoho, well I can certainly understand. She’s always been an outstanding beauty. Don’t worry about staying here. I’d like you to remain relatively secret. I’ll bring you out on occasion and let you do whatever during your free time. I’ve got everything I had before this genocide started, so there are plenty of magical tools for you to use if you want, as well as years worth of elemental texts for you to peruse on the shelves. Make yourself at home, and get stronger so I can employ your help more.”

“Alright.”

Dirk nodded and looked around at his new home for a second. 

“What about Pandora?”

“I’m not interested in bringing out everything I have just yet, so we’ll wait on contacting her. I’ll monitor things and watch what she does first. However, I must know. What could she have possibly come over here for? Surely she didn’t come out of the goodness of her heart to help her fellow vampires.”

“Yeah…”

Dirk smiled. She actually came for quite the opposite. She was going to use this genocide as a smokescreen to do everything she wanted to do. She thrived in chaos, and if there wasn’t enough, she’d make some. That’s why Dirk was pretty sure she was going to raze a city or two pretty soon. 

Helping the vampires would actually hinder her goals. She wanted the resistance to keep operating, and they would only operate if they had people to save. So she’d let the vampires stay in those camps, let the resistance keep attracting the attention of the elves, and covertly proceed to acquire what she was here to take. 

Dirk disappearing was the only thing changing her plans, for now. As for Yumia, he knew that letting her in on their actual goals probably wasn’t the best idea. He’d let Pandora determine whether or not Yumia knowing about the Key Artifacts was valuable. 

“We’re here to get to the Lair. We want to get in contact with more dragons.”

“Is that right? What about Horizon? Surely they had some to talk to. You didn’t have to come all the way here.”

“We talked to those in Horizon.”

“What about the Haven?”

“We’re… not exactly friendly with the Haven right now. There’s a General or two that aren’t pleased with us.”

Dirk smiled wryly. Technically they could probably return under the guise of diplomatic visits considering Pandora was still doing business over there, and had continued to earn a massive sum of money for her train engines while they waited in Horizon. But now that those Generals and the King knew about the Artifact, and how they’d snatched it, going there would be the least safe thing to do. An artifact to them was worth more than their lives. 

Yumia’s brows raised. 

“How the hell did you manage to piss off those Generals?”

“You can ask Pandora about that. I was just along for the ride.”

“Huh, I see. Well, getting to the Lair of Air isn’t going to be easy considering you’ll have to get close to the World Tree to do so. Which means you’ll need to be more powerful than you are now. So get some rest, and start training soon. We’re both dark mages so I can help you shape up your Stealth later. And let me know if you need help with martial arts. We have some knights here.”

“Understood. Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. Just keep Pandora out of my hair for now. That little demon knows exactly how to make my life difficult. I’m not interested in dealing with that yet.”

“I understand.”

Dirk nodded empathetically. He, beyond all others, knew just how difficult Pandora could be.